
Biden 'proud' of Biinken after tense exchange with Chinese officials
CNN
President Joe Biden said Friday he was "proud" of Secretary of State Tony Blinken, a day after the top US diplomat pushed back against Chinese officials in an unusually public and tense diplomatic exchange.
"I'm very proud of the secretary of state," Biden said when asked by reporters on the South Lawn for his reaction to the first day of talks, which started with a blistering exchange on Thursday in Anchorage, Alaska, and continue Friday. The extraordinary interaction unfolded in front of reporters at the start of Thursday's meetings when Chinese officials ignored protocol to rebut Blinken's description of Washington's "deep concerns" about some of China's actions and vociferously criticize the US, the state of its democracy and domestic racial tensions. Blinken then brought the cameras back into the room to offer his own, unscripted rebuttal from the Chinese officials.
Lawyers for Sen. Mark Kelly filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s move to cut Kelly’s retirement pay and reduce his rank in response to Kelly’s urging of US service members to refuse illegal orders. The lawsuit argues punishing Kelly violates the First Amendment and will have a chilling effect on legislative oversight.

Hundreds of Border Patrol officers are mobilizing to bolster the president’s crackdown on immigration in snowy Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday, as tensions between federal law enforcement and local counterparts flare after an ICE-involved shooting last week left a mother of three dead.

Nationwide outcry over the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent spilled into the streets of cities across the US on Saturday, with protesters demanding the removal of federal immigration authorities from their communities and justice for the slain Renee Good.










